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The prevented terrorist attack on a passenger jet traveling to Detroit, where the would be terrorist had explosives in his under-wear, has got governments around the world planning to install body scanners at airports in order to, hopefully, stop any other suicidal terrorist from smuggling explosives onto commercial airlines.

Airport Full body scanners use one ot two technologies - millimeter wave sensors or backscatter X-rays. As nearly all security scanners installed are the backscatter X-ray type this article will be about these only. The question that both passengers and governments should really be asking but are not doing so is. Is the full body scanner safe to use? Will regular airline passengers who are scanned many times a year experience any damaging consequences to their health?

X-rays:

X-rays, also called Rontgen Rays, are a form of ionizing radiation. If you have previously had an X-ray you will be aware that when the Radiologists takes the X-ray he stands behind a radiation proof screen so as to safeguard herself from the ionizing radiation.

If you have had a X-ray whilst at the dental practitioners you will notice that the Dentist will also stand at the rear of a screen or leave the room while the X-ray is taken. Radiologists and Dentists realize that exposure to X-rays can result in cancer.

As reported by Cancer Research UK. The proportion of cancers caused by X-rays is 0.6 percent.

Mammograms:

Females at high risk -- those with a hereditary or familial predisposition to breast tumors -- who have had 5 or more mammograms during their twenties were 2.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer as compared to high-risk women who has not had any mammograms.

Elderly women at high risk increased their chances of having breast cancer by 1.5 times because of mammograms. Basically, in high risk females, mammograms increase the chances of getting breast cancer. The more mammograms you have the greater the likelihood of getting malignant tumors.

After reviewing the clinical evidence the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has made new recommendations concerning mammograms.

Specifically, that women younger than 50 should not have mammograms unless there exists a very good reason for doing so. That women over 50 should only get them every other year. The radiation from mammograms might be low-dose radiation but it is still X-rays. The exact same kind of ionizing radiation used in backscatter X-ray full body scanning equipment.

If having a mammogram increases the risk of a woman having breast cancer then what about the level of ionizing radiation a woman would be receiving if she were scanned with a Backscatter X-ray full body scanner every time she took a journey upon a commercial airline.

CT Scans:

There is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that exposure to X-rays is hazardous to your health. It would be recommended to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation whenever possible. One way to accomplish this is to not have any unnecessary medical X-rays. For example some people get annual full body CT scans as part of an annual health check-up.

As per a report in the New England Journal of Medicine a third of all CT scans are clinically unnecessary. Considering that during the year 2006, in the US, there was over 62 million CT scans, which means there were over 20 million unnecessary CT scans done that year.

All airports will ultimately have body scanners installed for security reasons. You may currently opt out of the airport body scanner and have a pat-down, but this may change some time sooner or later as airports really want everyone to go through the body scanner.

In the event you fly regularly then, according to the scientific research, you will be exposing yourself to X-rays which may cause you to suffer serious medical problems.

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